#harkive

Harkive was an annual research project by Dr. Craig Hamilton aimed at understanding how, where, and why people around the world listened to music. Each year, on a specific day, listeners would send in the music they listened to, how they listened to it, where they were, and why they played what they played. Submissions occurred over twitter, instagram, tumblr, email, and on and on. Posts ranged from bullet points to essays. I only caught onto the project in July 2021 (here’s my first post about it), which happened to be its last year. It’s grown to be a personal music documentation prompt for me that I follow through with every so often. With that said…

Weird day today, my allergies took over and completely disconnected me from my head. Drove to work listening to some Vampire Weekend songs from OGWAU, thinking about learning the keys on “Connect”. Looking forward to the back to back shows this summer (well, a week apart), handing out stickers, waltzing around GA, driving 2 hours south, 2 hours north.

Back to the open tabs on my work computer (sorry!), it’s a good mix of discogs, rate your music, and a variety of record stores and labels and bandcamp pages and cassette/vinyl rips on youtube. I’ve been balanced between 70s folk rock (Jim Spencer, Jim Sullivan, Peter Galloway, etc) and 90s acid techno/house (particularly Space Wreck/Industry by Man Made). Complete opposites. Not sure how they’re both existing in me at once. I’ve been diving deep into rate your music and Discogs, feeling like I can crawl into its tiny crevices, pinch to zoom in, another flight of stairs into the basement. Today is starting on a different path but will surely find its way back to one of the two.

Started things off with Lite Hits by Sukpatch, found on All Night Flight and listened to on Youtube (two parts). I would’ve loved this in 2021 and I love it now. I believe the vocals are from the lead singer of Kitty Craft (that’s what this rym list told me, very informative). It’s on Bandcamp, so I’ll go ahead and buy it when I get home, though I’ll probably pass on the vinyl reissue this summer. 

Now I’m on Emergency Exits by Saucer, found on the aforementioned Kitty Craft rym list. Harsh in the beginning, softer in the middle, harsh at the end. The distorted guitars add grit to her gentle vocals. I’m into “Cigarette Polly”, “The Bunny”, and “Spoonerisms”. Now onto Jeep Music by Patch, also of Sukpatch and accompanied by vocals from Kitty Craft. Free download on Bandcamp! Not the best quality, but the direct cassette rip adds to the DIY nature of it, so I’m pleased. 

Long lunch spent at urgent care, morale is in the tank. Not in the mood for anything remotely upbeat and vocals are not allowed. Scrolled through the From the Stacks releases page on Bandcamp, Numero Group’s accumulation of stuff that’s not quite deserving of a full blown release. Perhaps that’s unkind as there are some gems there, but I will stand by the fact that not everything needs to be a masterpiece to be great. Currently enjoying Full Court Press by Calvin Keys. Now this is some smooth jazz/Nordstrom Bistro music. Exactly what I need right now.

Harkive was an annual research project by Dr. Craig Hamilton aimed at understanding how, where, and why people around the world listened to music. Each year, on a specific day, listeners would send in the music they listened to, how they listened to it, where they were, and why they played what they played. Submissions occurred over twitter, instagram, tumblr, email, and on and on. Posts ranged from bullet points to essays. I only caught onto the project in July 2021 (here’s my first post about it), which happened to be its last year. It’s grown to be a personal music documentation prompt for me that I follow through with every so often. With that said…

Carly Rae Jepsen in the car, woke up with “Psychedelic Switch” stuck in my head and I read the Pitchfork review for The Loveliest Time yesterday, so I was fully prepared to engage. It’s a phenomenal album. Only made it through a few songs before I got to work and it’s definitely not work music.

Now listening to Paradia by Roland Bocquet on Bandcamp at work. This came from my wishlist, not sure how I found it. I’m enjoying it enough, added it to my library. Easy listening, just weird enough. 

Found this person’s list on RYM while looking up Cosmology of Eye by GHQ from Ryley Walker’s list of his top 30 freak folk albums. Here’s a link to “Lie, Live, Make It”, having a hard time finding anything else from this album on the internet. It’s heavy and hypnotic and I would like to listen to more. 

In an attempt to find more stuff from that GHQ album on Youtube, I looked through the original uploader’s videos, with no luck. Opened a few tracks in a new tab, landed on “Entering the Mist” by Eric Amlee. It’s nice and gentle, a little bit too nice and gentle for post-lunch break surfing. Looked the guy up on Google, didn’t find much, but I did find a picture of him from 2005 or something on Flickr (a goldmine of 2000s media). Ended up looking through that photographer’s collection of live music photography from the mid-2000s in Massachusetts. I’ll get back to this, because I had quite the queue lined up before I left for lunch. 

Back to that guy’s RYM list. Now on Karma by Iñaki Egaña. Exactly what I want to be listening to right now. Easy mid-70s prog, wouldn’t mind hearing this in the camp art room on a Monday morning, 11am. 1:15pm on a Thursday trapped at my desk at work will do for now. I was hoping for something a bit more psych-y, but now this second song sounds like something that would filter out of my grandma’s car speakers. Okay, no longer into this, glad I gave it a shot. 

Now I’m onto 齊豫 Chyi Yu 'OLIVE' 橄欖樹, another album from that list. From here, I learned about Campus Folk, something I’ll look more into on a day that’s not today. Shout out to Rate Your Music, seriously, I stumble on some of the coolest stuff. I got into it when I was getting into 90s PNW twee and it helped me with my radio show (The Yearly with DJ Bread!) a ton. You can find some of my lists (not fully fleshed out, I add as I go) here. I’ll probably never listen to this again, but it’s nice for now. I like hearing the vinyl crackles throughout, it’s warm. 

From another guy’s RYM list on music from 2006 (I’m far too many closed tabs away from being able to find this link again, forgive me!), I found Saloon. Extremely into this so far. Listening to “Impact”, a 2001 single. Now I’m listening to a playlist with all of the songs from If We Meet in the Future. Cannot believe I didn’t find this sooner!! This is exactly the kind of music I like to listen to as I ease myself into and out of summer. It’s gentle, like driving through a light rain. I can’t help but get glimpses of sitting at the fountain in Hyde Park Village in 2004 or 2014 and maybe now in 2024, but it’s so different now. I’ll stop at the Fresh Market on the way home, eat some fresh figs in the afternoon as the rain rolls in over the canal, the pool, the roof, all the way to the airport. 

Now onto Navigation by Arthur and Martha. Found in the similar artist section of the Saloon page on RYM. Electric, grainy twee-adjacent pop. Synthesizers can really do the trick! Wasn’t feeling it, so I switched over to Horse Blanket Weather by Po! This is much more my speed at the moment. Very soft indie pop, would have fit in nicely on my plane ride to Portland a few years ago. I have intentions to check out Rutland Records – twee ish, by Ruth Rutland of Po! and Ruth’s Refrigerator or something like that. “first foot” is an excellent song! 

The World is a Bell by The Leaf Library hovers close to the ground, never really fully taking off. I’m skipping and listening to the new episode of Bandsplain (listener mailbag!).

Harkive was an annual research project by Dr. Craig Hamilton aimed at understanding how, where, and why people around the world listened to music. Each year, on a specific day, listeners would send in the music they listened to, how they listened to it, where they were, and why they played what they played. Submissions occurred over twitter, instagram, tumblr, email, and on and on. Posts ranged from bullet points to essays. I only caught onto the project in July 2021 (here’s my first post about it), which happened to be its last year. It’s grown to be a personal music documentation prompt for me that I follow through with every so often. With that said…

yesterday and today have been the same day, alone and not in the mountains. still reeling from bonnaroo, i still feel it it my legs. i need to wash my hair and unpack my car. i didn't realize i could stay up that late, fully sober and fully alone, guided only by a tentative schedule and unrestrained impulse. i just wandered around for 3 days, dirty and hydrated and thinking only about what was immediately happening and sitting in the grass and applying sunscreen often enough. there were no barriers between me and the environment i was interacting with, just me and the place.

i was mainly blown away by just how much incredible music i heard over the three days, like truly just top notch quality musicians. i get so used to small diy shows, lo-fi recordings (which has extreme merit! and is brilliant and genuine) that i am taken aback when i see musicians perform their craft, expertly. rina sawayama, cory wong, STS9, my morning jacket, etc. listened to a great podcast interview with alana rocklin, the bassist for STS9 on the drive home on monday, like truly such a talented musician. that show fully changed me, i was hypnotized and extremely awake. looking forward to getting into their discography and live performances, to hopefully see them again at 4 in the morning.

i wasn't sure what to listen to right away, if it would be overkill to relive that music immediately. but it's what i ended up wanting, so i leaned into that. drove to work yesterday listening to photo id by remi wolf twice. she is going to change pop music. i listened to some of her other songs, which i enjoyed so thoroughly live.

once i got to work i picked a random playlist i had saved on spotify and landed on stereolab-ish by andrew corbett. whoever you are, you did great.

enjoyed the phenomenal handclap band, queued up some dip in the pool. found a cool website (https://www.fondsound.com), read the retinae review, the o boy by salon music review, then listened to it on youtube.

put my june 2018 playlist on shuffle during lunch, i'm ready to listen to it again. it exists in an entirely different context now, outside of tampa, outside of 21. so much of it is so tied to that time, i was back at the stoplight at westshore after getting off the howard franklin during an afternoon storm again listening to earth by giraffage. in the backseat on the way to san luis obispo while listening to the right thing by james supercave.

i was working through some open tabs back at work, reading about STS9, hexstatic, ambient pop music, music from memory, the siket disc by phish. accidentally landed on that phish album while searching for quadraphonics on spotify (which i read about in a youtube comment on the salon music album). ambient phish forever.

proceeded back to rotation 24 on spotify, i've set myself up with quite the mix.

added dyslectic by amber #2 from the these are testing times compilation by 555 recordings to my suuuuuuuper lowkey playlist, only song they have on spotify, let's see if i can find anything about them online. found this album on discogs and youtube and not much else.

been listening to thalia zedek and her band. debbie friedman core, very dykey and safe. like driving through the vermont countryside on an overcast evening in september. that 2002 camp counselor turtleneck kitchen island type feeling i only know how to describe in those terms. reunion, redemption, an event planned via a months long email chain. her cover of you're a big girl now is very much worth a listen. like waiting in the parking lot after whitewater rafting, a long bus ride back.

i flipped through june 2018 and rotation 24 for the rest of the evening and then ended the night with dryfruit by sugar plant, a delicious summer evening record to seal off the day.

Harkive was an annual research project by Dr. Craig Hamilton aimed at understanding how, where, and why people around the world listened to music. Each year, on a specific day, listeners would send in the music they listened to, how they listened to it, where they were, and why they played what they played. Submissions occurred over twitter, instagram, tumblr, email, and on and on. Posts ranged from bullet points to essays. I only caught onto the project in July 2021 (here’s my first post about it), which happened to be its last year. It’s grown to be a personal music documentation prompt for me that I follow through with every so often. With that said…

it still doesn't feel like june, i'll have to accept its loss of meaning at this point. dramatic? probably! this year isn't chained to anything, it's of its own kind. today was a day of its own, it's as if sunday and monday never happened and tomorrow will be nothing like this. i've been caught up building fake memories, sticking myself in a camp life i never lived. this is definitely going in the drafts, i have no good words left in me for now

i had a warm day in june stuck in my head while i was getting ready. finally made a wakeup playlist last night, it had been about a month since the last one. did not listen to it on the way to work, was in too much of a hurry to get something playing before i pulled onto jefferson. spotify played what i was listening to as i fell asleep last night (I a moon by north sea radio orchestra), kind of boring.

listened to my wakeup playlist while i went through this weekend's emails and sort of planned my work day out. this week is candy, so everything is a little sweet and not very serious. overall, not a bad lineup.

candy coated kisses by the autocollants - this prompted me to queue up some more stuff from this album, such sweet, sweet music.

candy corn by jon hyde - did not like, but it's been in my library for a while and i feel like high school rachel (like early high school rachel) would have liked it so i can't bear to get rid of it (i'll probably delete it tomorrow)

candy floss by wilco

candy girl by the four seasons

candy rush by minuteflag - summer 2019, wusc, delight

candyboy by weyes blood - added this to june 2022, this album is delightfully weird, i love her range

candyman by bill horwitz

candyman by tsunami

at this point, i wanted to listen to something from a previous june. jumped into by album rotation from april-june 2018. most of this stuff is pretty predictable and incredibly dated to this time in my life. i figured i wouldn't have been able to process 2018 until 2022, in line with my four year cycle. which i think might have ended? no bloody knees on april 30th, no trips planned to tampa. i guess at least i have savannah to keep me chained to this reoccurring past. i might not need 2014 or 2018 anymore, but i will cling to 2012 forever. listened to a song from each album on here. some highlights: round room - phish, a tribe called quest, jenny and johnny, q-tip (i thought i was so cool for this), destroyer.

went on instagram, bonnaroo posted the lineup from 2002, this brought on a total vibe shift for the day. it is after lunch at this point, i have moved onto citations. i switched to spotify, started from the bottom of the lineup, and just started adding shit to the queue. in no way would i actively listen to any of this, but there is some of it that i wouldn't mind adopting into my personal history. like if i were x person, i would have made x self. a self that had this stuff on cds, friends at camp and college who listened to this. this seems like the equivalent to my dmb/dispatch phase (i recognized more names on this list than the non informed would have!). it's interesting. i wonder who i'd be if i were 25, planning the trek up to manchester. i definitely wouldn't be a dirty wook, i would go more camp counselor core. some acts i would see: dj logic, umphrey's (for the culture), drums and tuba, donna and the buffalo (i would have loved this. probably would have been a favorite cd for me if i'm keeping in line with this persona i've created), prob would have enjoyed the disco biscuit set, definitely would have loved cut chemist!!, moe. (once again, for the culture), karl denson's tiny universe, jack johnson (couldn't miss it in this alternate world, just because), phil lesh and friends (duh), trey anastasio (DUH). what a trip this was.

Harkive was an annual research project by Dr. Craig Hamilton aimed at understanding how, where, and why people around the world listened to music. Each year, on a specific day, listeners would send in the music they listened to, how they listened to it, where they were, and why they played what they played. Submissions occurred over twitter, instagram, tumblr, email, and on and on. Posts ranged from bullet points to essays. I only caught onto the project in July 2021 (here’s my first post about it), which happened to be its last year. It’s grown to be a personal music documentation prompt for me that I follow through with every so often. With that said…

Unfortunately, my music experience today was not as expansive as it had been over the weekend, but due to the integrity of this project, I’m going to be faithful and actually write about July 20th.

I started off the morning, as I do everyday, with Blinded by the Light (radio edit) by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band set as my alarm (I will stand by this: it is simply the perfect song to wake up to). I played Wild Blue by John Mayer on Spotify on the TV while I made breakfast. Sob Rock has conjured up a lot of thoughts, mostly positive. Really enjoying it as a concept album, as an attempt at time travel, an attempt to relive memories that never got to happen in the first place.

Didn’t listen to music again until my flight to Nashville took off. On the plane, I listened to:

Started off by shuffling some of my quick cuts 12 playlist on Spotify. Listened to: My Blue House by Afuken, Please (radio edit) by Dance System (one of my most played artists this summer. aggressively fun and completely addicting), Obvious by Quick Space, Home is Where I Can Dance by Sofia Kourtesis (another recent favorite. great boiler room set on youtube), The Midnight Song Part II by Mumbly (back on my soft indie pop groove), and 1 Million Breaks by Acemoma (not a great mood shift).

I got kind of tired of this playlist, so I moved back to Apple Music where I had more stuff downloaded to my phone. Played American Don by Don Caballero while I tried to take a nap at 9am and then, in natural progression, queued up my favorite Pelé album, Elephant.

Later in the afternoon, once I settled into Nashville, the vegan restaurant we went to was playing exactly the type of music you’d expect to hear at a trendy vegan cafe (relatively mainstream indie music from the past 20 years). None of it spiked enough interest to interrupt conversation until we were about to get up to bus our table and head back to the car. About to Die by the Dirty Projectors came on, I stopped my friend, told her about driving into high school late every morning, playing this song.

We headed to a pretty disappointing record store, I’m not even sure that they were playing any music. Actually wait, I think they were playing the Talking Heads, which is probably why I was already skeptical. They mostly had new records and not a very expansive collection. But they really lost me when not only were the folk and blues records stuffed in the same section, but there were maybe only 30 records max. The avant-garde section was bigger than that but I continued to be disappointed in their selection of mainly newer titles or reissues. I did end up buying some books, which I’ll include since they are music related: The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper, Dig Me Out by Johanna Babović from the 33 1/3 series, and Personal Stereo by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow from the Object Lessons series. And because it’s impossible for me to go into a record store without buying at least something, I picked up two records: Elements by Ira Stein and Russel Walder (I’ll pretty much buy anything released on Windham Hill Records) and Moths by Jacob Morris (never heard of this, but I liked the album cover. it was recorded in Athens, GA and was only $2.99, so I threw it in).

On the drive back to my friend’s apartment, we listened to Kacey Musgraves, as one should do when driving through Nashville. We talked about our karaoke songs, debated on the correct genre and Vibe to capitalize on when performing terribly at a bar.

On the way to dinner with her boyfriend, we listened to some Olivia Rodrigo because it’s great to be young-ish (is 24 years old young? old?) right now. After dinner, the conversation about karaoke songs continued, so I queued mine up after good 4 u. We screamed that song, hair everywhere. And then, the keys came in, then the drums and the vocals, then finally the satisfying guitar riff. I sang every goddamn word to Blinded by the Light, solidifying it as my official karaoke song.

i was scrolling through tumblr, decided to go through my recent likes and organize things into my different blogs. listened through some of velvet-seas, enjoyed a mix by dj lance lockarm, went to look them up on spotify, couldn't find anything so i turned to google. on google i scrolled until i landed on their discogs page and then a review from FreakyTrigger, which then led me to explore their website until i opened enough tabs to satiate my curiosity. i browsed their music section, found an article about documenting the writer's music listening history for a day, which was inspired by harkive.org.

and after doing a brief skim of their site and discovering that their annual review day is coming up on the 21st, i decided that i will do a quick rundown of today's day in music. i'll get back to reading more about the project and jotting down ideas, but i want to get this typed up before i get in too deep.

so what have i listened to today, thursday july 15th, 2021?

on my way to see george, i started where i left off on my camp 2012 playlist. i can't remember when i created this playlist on itunes/apple music, i wonder if it was before i even started streaming music? though, i find it hard to believe that i would have made it right after camp that summer. i'm going to do a quick google search and see if i can find out if there's a way to see when playlists in itunes/apple music were made like they show in spotify. so i'm not finding anything. oh well. last evening, mom and i went to the mall, parked by nordstrom. it was raining all afternoon, so the sky was still grey and it was heavy outside. late summer afternoons in the mall parking lot hold a particular weight for me so i decided to queue up my camp 2012 playlist, starting with silver lining by rilo kiley. this morning, the playlist started back up halfway through some devil by dave matthews, a song i probably haven't heard in at least 5 years. i graduated high school 6 years ago. i was in a daze in the car this morning, so i wasn't really listening or singing along. on swann, the shuffle played 3 consecutive red hot chili pepper songs (by the way, universally speaking, snow), i wanted to go back to my 2012 self. IF I MAY by pete francis made me nostalgic, dog nails tap the kitchen floor. while i waited in my car, hey hey hey and for the summer set me back a few years while i scrolled through tumblr and eventually tried to read a few pages of the spotify play. i shut the car off halfway through tutim techno.

at george's, i can't really remember the music he played. we talked about annoying tiktok songs and his love for die antward. we talked briefly about fiona apple while paper bag was playing. i saw something about the new john mayer album while scrolling through something and tried to find a leaked version of wild blue. queued up his interview with zane lowe on apple music to listen to on my way to rollin oats.

listened to that on the way there, can't remember if any music was playing while shopping. finished the interview on the way home, excited for the record to drop tomorrow. he talked about the construction of fake memories, i conjured up thoughts of making up memories from camp in the 90s, moments that are so fancifully constructed, they could never be real, and yet they feel so tangible. but i will continue to live in this secluded part of my mind that allows them to exist as if they not only actually happened, but i was actually there to experience it. this cannot be mentioned without acknowledging the role that exploring the camp coleman alumni group pages played in 2011-2012.

i didn't listen to music again until i went to go take a nap in my room after i was no longer satisfied with any of the comedy central stand up clips the youtube algorithm was feeding me. last night i fell asleep to a live performance by katy j pearson, thinking how wonderful her voice is. i shuffled the vicarious voyage playlist by jdavfromtheblock on spotify, adding some songs by adron to the queue and to my liked songs.

woke up and continued to listen to the playlist. after dinner, i sat on my bed while doing some GRE practice tests and continued to listen to the playlist. got distracted when i hit full moon by mitch margo, recognizing it from the seafaring stranger compilation by light in the attic i added sometime last year to my apple music library. i went through and queued some yacht rock songs (peter gallway, ned doheny). made it further along the playlist until it reached bumble buddies by jacob mann, which reminded me that jonwayne existed and didn't satisfy my expectations all over again (though, i did enjoy 40 winks).

at this point i had made it to scrolling through velvet-seas and started queuing up stuff i reblogged on there. listened to some cleaners from venus, unsure where i stand on that kind of music. it's not my vibe right now, but it has been and will be at some point.

somewhere between that and azealia banks, i hopped onto the dj lance lockarm mix which is ultimately what led me to typing these words right now. from his discogs, i found a 6 hr mix, people like us - a brief history of sound collage, he was featured in and then started listening to that on some random website google brought me to. i liked the third song, deck the hall by akufen, which i could only find on youtube. this of course led me down a little bit of a spotify hole and i added some recommended artists to the queue, none of which i really loved. i was ready to settle into another playlist, but i was still in a dance vibe, so i skimmed a friend's playlist which then reminded me that not my boss! by blue hawaii existed, so i enjoyed that. somehow landed on tokyo ghetto pussy, which is what i was listening to right before i decided to listen to deck the hall by akufen again. going to have to download this one. ok just downloaded it and did a quick skim of his discogs. i have successfully stressed my spotify out, so i just quit and reopened the app.

Welcome to Harkive 2020. Thanks for visiting the website and for showing an interest in the project. This post should tell you everything you may need to know about the project.

What is Harkive?

Harkive is an annual online research project that gathers stories about How, Where and Why people listen to music across a single day. Since launching in 2013 the project has gathered around 10,000 stories, from people all over the world. This year Harkive takes place on Tuesday 21st July –  We’d love to hear your story.

The project is interested in how music plays its part in your day on 21st July. Which technologies, formats and services you use, the places you find yourselves in, how music accompanies you as you move through your day, and – of course – how music makes you feel.

How do I get involved?

Joining in with the project is easy. You can do so simply by adding the #harkive hashtag to your music-related posts on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. Alternatively, if you want to write something a little longer, you can email it to us, or send it via this online form. Stories are also accepted as posts on the Harkive Facebook wall.

To post here on Tumblr, simply add the #harkive hashtag to your post!

You can post as many entries as you like across the day, and you can write as much or as little as you like. Feel free to include photos, links and other digital media. There is more detailed information on how to tell your story here. You can also read some example posts that have been collected in previous years, from musicians, writers, technologists, promoters, and others.

Why does Harkive gather this information?

Harkive is part of ongoing research being undertaken by Craig Hamilton in the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research at Birmingham City University. His research explores the cultural, technological, economic and social factors surrounding popular music consumption in the digital age, and his particular interest is the role digital, data and internet technologies play in the ways we listen. You can find more detailed information about the research ethics of this work here.

MyHarkive – new for 2020.

For Harkive 2020 we’re also launching the MyHarkive web app. This is interactive page will enable those who have posted stories to Harkive in previous years to explore their older posts. A lot can happen in 8 years, so we hope you enjoy looking back at how you listened during earlier Harkive days!

Once you’ve entered a username that creates a match in the Harkive database, you can then view the times of day you posted each year on the When you posted tab, or read your past stories on the What you said tab. Where available, links to your orginal posts – or media you shared (e.g. YouTube links, Spotify playlists) – are shown. These links will work as long as the original content is still online at that URL. The datatable view can also be re-organised by any of the columns, and you can search for particular words using the search box.

Need more information?

If you have any questions about Harkive, or the research surrounding it, please feel free to email [email protected] or say hello on Twitter (@harkive)

Join in!

Harkive is looking forward to once again hearing your stories this year. Please do consider joining in, and please do tell your friends, share this post, and generally spread the word.